Vision patterns link to loss of independence in older adults

In older adults from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, researchers examined how self-rated vision problems link to next-wave loss of functional independence across waves 1 to 9. The current-pattern analysis evaluated 50,991 person-intervals from 12,811 participants, defining impairment as self-rated fair, poor, or blind vision with usual correction. Models adjusted for sociodemographic, behavioural, clinical, hearing, and cognitive factors.

Near-only, distance-only, and dual impairments were all associated with functional-independence loss, with hazard ratios of 1.39, 1.42, and 1.59, respectively. Dual impairment had the strongest association with incident limitations in instrumental activities of daily living, showing a hazard ratio of 1.86. In vision-change analyses of 10,668 participants, incident, improved or recovered, and persistent impairments were also associated with functional-independence loss, yielding hazard ratios of 1.51, 1.27, and 1.63.